"The city is working hard to protect people and property from flooding in the future," said Mayor Naheed Nenshi in a release.

"This process and its task forces will be an important part of that, and I thank these prominent Calgarians for stepping forward to help."

Wolf Keller, the former head of Calgary’s water resources department, will lead the panel made up of two environmental scientists, an engineer and a political scientist.

Roger Gibbins was a professor of political science at the University of Calgary for almost three decades after which he headed up the Canada West Foundation.

Darrel Danyluk is a civil engineer with almost 40 years of experience in municipal infrastructure engineering. He is chair of the public infrastructure engineering vulnerability committee of Engineers Canada.

Erika Hargesheimer, an environmental chemist and business expert, was in charge of Calgary’s community services and protective services department from 2001 to 2013.

Steve Hrudey is a University of Alberta professor emeritus in environmental health sciences and the former chair of the Alberta Environmental Appeals Board.

"The panel will address community-wide and watershed scale river flood protection and will engage other experts and citizens throughout the process," said Keller, who added the group will work closely with provincial officials.

Officials said more details will be released in the coming weeks about how the panel will engage with the public and report its progress.